BYU NewsNet - Elder Holland and other clergy promote unity through prayer

The Utah Valley celebration of the National Day of Prayer Friday (May 4, 2007) focused on the importance of peace and unity among religions and peoples of our community.

Linda P. Walton, chaplain of Utah Valley University, set the tone for the evening by elaborating on the theme for the event, "From Tolerance to Love."

"We commonly hear the phrase 'religious tolerance,'" Walton said. "We tolerate loud music, we tolerate certain antibiotics and don't break out in hives, we tolerate certain amounts of pain, we tolerate Brussels sprouts. But more than enduring each other, we must love each other."

Reverend Kathleen West of St. Mary's Episcopal Church encouraged the same unity in praying that "our people could be at peace among ourselves and that we could be a blessing to other nations of the earth."

The keynote speaker of the evening, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, encouraged prayer as the means for peace and unity in our society.

"Today our nation doesn't fight a civil war, with brother fighting against brother," he said. "But we are plagued with brother fighting brother with handguns in university classrooms, drunk drivers in vehicles on the streets and highways, and hate-filled talk on the radio or in DVDs."

He said prayer will help encourage peace.

"I can think of almost nothing we need more in this or any nation than we need prayer, whether they be local or private, national or international in scope," he said.

Holland advised listeners to be constant in prayer and overcome evil with good, as found in one of the themes for the evening, Romans 12.

"To make headway in the world of woe, we need to broaden our circle of love and make headway in the table of contents of our prayers," Elder Holland said.

Chaplain Richard Green of the Utah County Sheriff's Office announced plans to construct a chapel in the county jail and purchase religious texts for the prison inmates.

"When the inmates learn the instructions of God, then God the Father becomes God their Father and He will look after them," Green said. "Some say that prayer changes things, but I found an exception. I say prayer changes me and prayer changes you, and that is the power of prayer."

Other participants of the event included Janette Rodriguez from the Provo Seventh-day Adventist Church, retired U.S. Army Chaplain Paul Williams, Pastor Stephen Andrews of Christ Evangelical Church, Imam Usama Baioumy of the Utah Valley Muslim Congregation and Dr. Auriel R. Combs of the Beth Adonai Jewish Congregation. There were also performances by the Utah Valley Handbell Choir under the direction of Karen Eskew-Wylie, and the Provo High School Choir directed by Cory Mendenhall.

Editor's Note. An earlier version of this article misidentified Elder Holland. NewsNet.byu.edu corrects all mistakes brought to its attention, and thanks those who do so. We apologize for the error made in this article.